Funds For Minority Training, Jobs Swing Vote

A fractured Palm Beach County Commission chose the Abacoa development in Jupiter as the new home for The Scripps Research Institute on Tuesday, defying Gov. Jeb Bush in a decision for the future of biomedical research in Florida.

The 4-3 decision puts California-based Scripps on 30 acres at Florida Atlantic University's campus, within the Abacoa development where Scripps has its temporary laboratories. Future Scripps labs would go on 70 acres at the Briger property in Palm Beach Gardens, separated from Abacoa by Donald Ross Road.

The cost to county taxpayers will be $25.4 million, according to officials. The figure includes buying the land for the Scripps headquarters, hooking up utilities and burying power lines.

An $8 million pot of money for minority programs persuaded Commissioner Addie Greene, the swing vote, to favor the Abacoa proposal, she said after the decision.

"I wanted to hear specifically what you are going to do for the African-American minority community," said Greene, whose minority district is based in Riviera Beach.

Tuesday's vote shifts Scripps and related development away from rural citrus fields and into urban communities.

Scripps was to be built at Mecca Farms, but a federal judge stopped construction last fall, citing an inadequate environmental review. The county paid $60 million for Mecca's 1,919 acres, and the property's future now is uncertain.

At Abacoa, Scripps will go up near a baseball stadium where the Florida Marlins play spring training games, a town center and upscale homes and condos. In choosing the site, commissioners sharply changed course from decisions that spurned Abacoa-Briger.

Commissioners also Tuesday rejected a southern Palm Beach County bid based in Boca Raton, which received Bush's endorsement Monday.

During the four-hour meeting Tuesday, Boca Raton slashed its cost from $23.1 million to $16.9 million -- making it the cheapest proposal by $8.5 million.

"I guess we had everyone except the majority of the County Commission," Boca Raton Mayor Steven Abrams said. "Boca Raton will survive."

After the vote, Bush said he was not disappointed in the decision, yet he declined to say that he was OK with the site. "The good news is that it appears they are on that path [toward construction]," the governor said.

Bush lured Scripps to Florida in 2003, the institute's first East Coast expansion, with $600 million in state and county incentives. Scripps is supposed to spawn a biotech industry in South Florida and beyond, creating thousands of jobs and promoting dramatic improvements in the state's educational landscape.

"The governor has veto power on this," Commissioner Tony Masilotti said. "If he doesn't like [Abacoa], he'll veto it and we'll move on to another site."

Barring Bush's intervention, the focus now shifts to arranging new contracts and hiring a construction team for the labs, which could take eight months. The construction tab, once $137 million, is expected to soar to $175 million or more.

During the months-long site debate, Scripps favored Abacoa because the institute's temporary labs already were there.

"We've very happy we've taken this first step ... to getting a permanent facility," said Scripps' chief operating officer, Doug Bingham.

Masilotti said he thought the Jupiter and Boca Raton proposals were "equal." What tipped the scales: real estate prices. He said land is about $1.5 million an acre near Boca Raton's proposed Scripps campus, which is unaffordable for biotech start-ups.

Jupiter officials said that, with the Abacoa site, "job creation will stay within Palm Beach County," as Jupiter Vice Mayor Todd Wodraska put it. That echoed a common line of attack against the Boca site: It would send benefits of biotech south to Broward County.

But for all the chatter about the cost to taxpayers and land for biotech spinoffs, dueling packages for the black community took center stage.

In the south county bid, Boca Raton and Delray Beach teamed to offer $4 million for diversity programs, with a Greene-led panel of black leaders deciding how the funds would be spent.

But north county officials had a trump card with their own package, including $3 million from Jupiter and a promise of $5 million from private businesses led by Abacoa developer George de Guardiola.